Intentional Disciples BlogCatherine of Siena Institutehttp://www.siena.org/February-2010/
Fri, 09 Dec 2016 19:04:22 +0000Joomla! 1.5 - Open Source Content Managementen-gbA Glimpse of American Catholic Life in the 1940'shttp://www.siena.org/February-2010/a-glimpse-of-american-catholic-life-in-the-1940s
http://www.siena.org/February-2010/a-glimpse-of-american-catholic-life-in-the-1940sWhile I share this revealing passage in a National Catholic Reporter article this morning that shows another facet of real life in 1940's American Catholicism (see my recent post "A People Without A History")

"In 1945, when Mary Paul heard God’s call to religious life, she could not enter any community of women religious in her hometown of Philadelphia, including the Sisters of Mercy. Not because her vocation was untrue, but because she was a person of color. At the time, women of color in the city were referred to three orders: the Oblate Sisters of Providence in Baltimore, the Franciscan Handmaids of Mary in Harlem, N.Y., or the Sisters of the Holy Family in New Orleans -- communities comprised mostly of women of color. Paul entered the Baltimore order. Her story is the story of many other women of color who were refused entrance to so-called “white” communities."

Just a year later, however, Mother Mary Bernard became the superior of the Merion Regional Community of the Sisters of Mercy in Philadelphia. Bernard asked her novices to pray for the entrance of a “colored sister” into the community. And in 1956, after being educated by the Mercy sisters in high school, Sr. Cora Marie Billings, Paul’s niece, entered the community and Bernard’s prayers were answered."]]>sherry@siena.org (Sherry)February 2010Sat, 27 Feb 2010 14:19:25 +0000Retreat!http://www.siena.org/February-2010/retreat
http://www.siena.org/February-2010/retreatRight into the teeth of the latest storm to cross the California coast and head east to get the rest of us! If you are in the LA area, we'd love to see you there!]]>sherry@siena.org (Sherry)February 2010Sat, 27 Feb 2010 08:48:15 +0000Muslim Followers of Jesus: Baptized & Unbaptizedhttp://www.siena.org/February-2010/muslim-followers-of-jesus-baptized-a-unbaptized
http://www.siena.org/February-2010/muslim-followers-of-jesus-baptized-a-unbaptizedNotes on Arab Orthodoxy. The blogger believes the interview to be authentic.

"The first time that I had the desire to study the New Testament in detail was when I was in front of the Kaaba in Mecca—I lived for a time in Mecca. Christian literature is strictly prohibited in Saudi Arabia and many websites are even blocked, but with the development of modern communications, it is not difficult for those who are looking to find the Word of God. After a time, I tried to convince and American who was working in the Saudi capital to convert to Islam. When I spoke to him, he responded with much courage and conviction. I was surprised by his courage, because in Saudi Arabia a man who preaches Christianity can easily be killed. Conversations with Christians in Saudi Arabia were very important for me. As someone associated with the Islamic mission in Arabia, I encountered many foreigners."

Snip.

"I agree that there are many secret Christians in Saudi Arabia. Several times I myself have encountered people who were probably secret Christians. We need to understand that in Saudi Arabia and other countries, maybe the majority of Muslims go to the mosque not because their faith encourages them to, but because they are obliged to do so under the pressure of laws and customs. Visiting the mosque becomes a burden. Muslims of today are rather less religious than people in the Christian world believe."

Snip.

"In Muslim countries, many people search for truth and it’s because of this that the Christian mission will grow. Most promote Christianity among friends, and recently there have been television networks and many more internet sites dedicated to mission among Muslims. In general, many Muslims distance themselves from Islam and this is especially visible in Western countries. In Great Britain, many Muslims have converted to Christianity. In the Anglican Church, Muslims who have adopted Christianity are estimated at a hundred thousand people. Many of them are Pakistanis. They have their own Christian churches and are forced to hide because of the danger of reprisals from the Muslims. There are also Arab and Bengali converts to Christianity. Very many convert because of mixed marriages."

"Sherry's note: I've never heard this statistic before that that doesn't mean it is impossible. There are some creative missionary endeavors within evangelical Anglicanism, especially in the global south.

On Muslim practice in the UK

The presence of mosques in the UK is very weak. Most Muslims won’t ever go to a mosque. The young people have effectively left Islam, even if they say that they’re still Muslims. In the mosques they don’t find a common language with the Imams from Pakistan or Bangladesh. Young people can barely speak Urdu or Bengali but only English. Many are ashamed of Islam because of terrorism. Our inter-religious council investigated mosque attendance and we know what the real picture is and it is especially alarming for Islam, but it is to the advantage of certain people to present Islam as an immense force.

Are there many Muslims who convert to Christianity in Great Britain?

"On the one hand, there are very many. This happens without any publicity. In effect, according to most schools of Islam an apostate from Islam should be executed, even though the imams of the chief mosques of London say that they cannot be executed for apostasy from Islam.

However, on the other hand, we can say that there are very few, since many Muslims simply abandon their faith and become unbelievers. Unbelief is an illness common to all. Certain Muslims try to present atheism and the absence of religion as characteristics of Christian civilization, but Muslims themselves, even more than Christians, lose their faith in the Western world."

Sherry's note: the issue of "secret believers" in both Islam and Hinduism is getting a lot of attention in the evangelical missions world. Some of these undercover believers in Jesus are baptized and would call themselves Christians. Others are not baptized and consider themselves to be both culturally Muslim and spiritually followers of Jesus. Some missionaries are intentionally fostering "NBB" (Non Baptized Believers) with the idea that someone who is not forced out of their family and cultural setting - as so many Muslim Background Believers are - is much better placed to be an evangelizing influence

The only category in Catholic or Orthodox ecclesiology for a "non baptized believer" would be a sort of life-long catechumen. But a catechumen that has no intention of being baptized eventually or of calling him or herself a "Christian" which is - or at least, has been - unthinkable. Welcome to post-modernity. This movement is highly controversial in evangelical circles as well. There are very rough estimates that there night be as many as 15 million "Non-baptized believers" in the Muslim and Hindu worlds.

I'm planning a series of posts on the huge Lausanne missions conference to be held in Cape Town in October to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the landmark Edinburgh Missions Conference of 1910. Over 4,000 invited missions leaders from all over the world will attend. It is an ecumenical conference of evangelical missions.

If there is any Catholic representation at this conference, it is low key and informal. But the many of the leaders are former Catholics. And the fruits of the conference will ultimately affect Catholics all over the world. A number of these leaders are working in Europe, working to stem the tide of secular disbelief there.

As part of the preparation for this conference, Christianity Today is sponsoring a web based "Global Conversation" on 12 topics of major interest to evangelical missionaries. The topic for December, 2009 was Muslim Followers of Jesus. It was a spirited conversation with lots of comments and the website is worth perusing for those who want to get a better sense of this wholly new development in the history of the Christian-Muslim relationship.]]>sherry@siena.org (Sherry)February 2010Sat, 27 Feb 2010 01:33:11 +0000Prayer Requesthttp://www.siena.org/February-2010/prayer-request
http://www.siena.org/February-2010/prayer-requestWhich is particularly poignant because Jimmie's wife, Bev, is also in the throes of dealing with her mother who has Alzheimer's but is fighting the fact that she can not longer live safely on her own.

Jimmie and Bev both really need help and grace!

Update; Thank you for your prayers. Jimmy is out of the hospital, his infection is responding to meds, and it looks like his leg is safe for the time being.]]>sherry@siena.org (Sherry)February 2010Fri, 26 Feb 2010 14:23:21 +0000The "19 Million" Thought Experimenthttp://www.siena.org/February-2010/the-q19-millionq-thought-experiment
http://www.siena.org/February-2010/the-q19-millionq-thought-experimentThought experiment courtesy of the 2010 Vatican Yearbook. :

19 million additional Catholics entered the Church in 2008: Most are baptized infants. But perhaps a million could be older children or adult converts.

If brought together they would produce a Catholic Mexico City, the second largest city on earth:

That means 52,055 additional Catholics or a new Durango, Colorado every day

That means 2,169 additional Catholics every hour

36 additional Catholics every second

In the 22 seconds that it took me to read the lines above out loud, an additional 795 Catholics joined us on this earth in 2008.

19 million immortals19 million people created by God19 million people redeemed by Jesus Christ 19 million members of the Body of Christ19 million people who need to encounter Christ personally and respond to his call to follow him19 million people anointed by Christ himself for a vocation, to play a unique part in his redemption of the world19 million people given charisms for the sake of others (and most people are given more than one!)

19 million people who need to be loved, prayed for, fed, housed, clothed, educated, evangelized, catechized, to receive the sacraments, have a place to attend Mass regularly, receive help in discerning and answering God's call, and to be encouraged along the journey.

At the current 0.03508% ratio of priests (3.5/100ths of 1%) in the Catholic Churchthose 19 million would include 6,650 priestly vocations.

Can we take this in? What is God doing? What are we called to do? What implications do you see?

It's worth thinking about. Cause we are going to find that another 16 - 20 million entered in 2009. A conservative estimate would put our numbers at 1.2 billion by the end of 2010.]]>sherry@siena.org (Sherry)February 2010Thu, 25 Feb 2010 20:47:27 +0000Nineteen Million More Catholics in 2008http://www.siena.org/February-2010/nineteen-million-more-catholics-in-2008
http://www.siena.org/February-2010/nineteen-million-more-catholics-in-2008Via Zenit. (A reader pointed out that I'd gotten the original number wrong. It is 19 million, not 17 million. We are growing faster than I knew!)

A net gain (after deaths) of 19 million new Catholics in 2008 bringing the global total to 1,166,000. That is a growth of 1.7% which is slightly ahead of the world's population growth rate.

Catholics make up 17.4% of the human race. The number of Catholics grew fastest in Africa (up 1.83%) and the Americas ( 1.57%) with Europe in last place (0.7%)

The overall number of priests continues to grow slowly. There were 409,166 Catholic priests in 2008. There was also a 1% growth in seminarians in 2008. Africa seminarian numbers were up 3.6%, Asia up 4.4% and Oceania up 6.5% (which is particularly good news).

In Europe, however, there was a 4.3% drop and the numbers in America have remained more or less stable.

The number of religious women continues to grow dramatically in Africa (up 21.2% since 2000) and Asia (up 16.4%) but the hemorrhage in Europe and North America continues so there was a significant overall loss in numbers.

19 million additional Catholics in 2008. To give some perspective, that's considerably larger than the number of Southern Baptists in the US (16 million) - the second largest communion in the country.

So every year, Catholics are adding an entire Southern Baptist Convention and then some to our numbers. Never, in 2,000 years, has a Christian group dealt with such numbers.

Instead of getting stuck on what happened in the west two generations ago, we need to be figuring out how to evangelize, form, and care for the staggering numbers coming our way today.

The duty of the present moment is the call of God.]]>sherry@siena.org (Sherry)February 2010Thu, 25 Feb 2010 13:55:39 +0000Wanda Poltawska: An Amazing Lifehttp://www.siena.org/February-2010/wanda-poltawska-an-amazing-life
http://www.siena.org/February-2010/wanda-poltawska-an-amazing-lifeWhat a life. Victim of Nazi medical experiments, beneficiary of a miraculous healing through Padre Pio, intimate friend to one of the great international figures of her day. Poltowska could serve as a poster child for the tragedies and glories of 20th century Poland. I've read that when Padre Pio received the letter from then Bishop Karol Wojtyla asking him to pray for the healing of this wife, mother, and physician, Pio said "This one, one cannot refuse".

My friend's Fulbright research is on the Catholic laity so he doesn't want to focus primarily on her relationship with Pope John Paul II but on her own experience as a serious lay Catholic. Wanda Poltawska was an expert in human sexuality and one of John Paul's advisors for his work in the Theology of the Body.

There has been considerable consternation in some ecclesial circles about the publication of her correspondence with the Pope and accusations that she is attempting to "profit" from her friendship with JPII.

I, for one, would very much like to hear from his friends while they are living. And it seems most appropriate as his cause for canonization is underway.

]]>sherry@siena.org (Sherry)February 2010Thu, 25 Feb 2010 13:11:24 +0000Mapping the Religious Blogospherehttp://www.siena.org/February-2010/mapping-the-religious-blogosphere
http://www.siena.org/February-2010/mapping-the-religious-blogosphereImmanent Frame has a fascinating map of the religious blogosphere and only a few of the best known St. Blog's names are upon it:

Get Religion, Whispers in the Loggia, Commonweal, First Things.

Catholic blogs are a small subset of religious blogdom and religion is a small subset of the blogosphere as a whole. Talking to ourselves a good deal, it seems.

They have done a major breakdown via Technorati, Alexa. Read it and weep.]]>sherry@siena.org (Sherry)February 2010Thu, 25 Feb 2010 12:53:59 +0000A Different History: Through Korean Eyeshttp://www.siena.org/February-2010/a-different-history-through-korean-eyes
http://www.siena.org/February-2010/a-different-history-through-korean-eyes

Here's another moving glimpse of Catholic life and faith outside the west via the blog: Catholic American Eyes in Korea. The magnificent bronze doors of the Cathedral in Seoul depict the sufferings of early Catholics:

Cathedral doors were to express in bronze relief the beginning history of the Catholic Church of Korea. For one year Prof. Choi traveled around Korea to the different pilgrimage sites, and spent time reading Catholicism's history in Korea so the representation would be true to history.

Depictions on the doors are the first Chinese priest saying Mass, the representation of his first catechist receiving communion, a Paris foreign missioner taking care of orphans, persecution of the Catholics, and the clay pots that the Catholics sold to make a living during the years of persecution. It does give one a feel for the years of persecution and what it must have meant to the first Christians.

The artist is a convert to Catholicism himself who took the name John Vianney. The 1950's in Korea was a time of war (think MASH) and the experience fueled Choi's conversion.

In 1953 Prof. Choi entered Seoul School of art and sculpture after experiencing the cruelty and shock of war. His dean said he would make a good religious and recommended he enter the Catholic Church. He started to receive instructions was baptized and continued to relate his art to his religion. He hopes all those who come to the Cathedral and see the doors will want to imitate the faith of these early Catholics.]]>sherry@siena.org (Sherry)February 2010Thu, 25 Feb 2010 12:22:44 +0000Full Body Scanning at Airports: What Do You Think?http://www.siena.org/February-2010/full-body-scanning-at-airports-what-do-you-think
http://www.siena.org/February-2010/full-body-scanning-at-airports-what-do-you-thinkSister Anne Flanagan of Chicago has a thought-provoking perspective in her essay: Full-body scanning: a religious question?.

"I'm beginning to realize that it's (to use language from Pope John Paul II) a “theology of the body” thing.

I object to full body scanning because I believe that, with the level of detail it offers (even if in silhouette), it violates what Pope John Paul called the spousal meaning of the body.

The body's design itself makes it clear that we are meant for an "other", and we generally choose that "other" with care, because we are vulnerable in revealing ourselves.

Even at the doctor's office, we don't go full frontal unless that is precisely where our health is in question. (That's why they give you that crazy paper outfit.) Self-revelation in the body is a lovely (in the full sense of the word), intimate gift. Because the body is meant for communion. Always.

It is not true that our body is just a sort of envelope for a sexlessly generic soul, or that it is a strange animal-like appendage to the "important," spiritual part, but that really doesn't matter in itself (although plenty of people in our culture seem to think this). We ought to be alert to the tremendous significance of being "bodied persons": God became incarnate so he could relate to us in this very human way!

So there's something really not right, in my book, with a "revelation" of the body that takes place anonymously, apart from personal communion, in which I am being revealed to someone I cannot see or know; whose reaction I cannot gauge; whose trustworthiness with the sacredness of my body's image I am asked to take on the good faith of the United States' Transportation Security Administration."

How would you respond to Sr. Anne's question. What do you want to say to the TSA?]]>sherry@siena.org (Sherry)February 2010Wed, 24 Feb 2010 14:12:19 +0000